WAC still looks to get to 10 teams

Western Athletic Conference commissioner Jeff Hurd still wants the league to get to 10 teams.

And in the conference’s second year with the current eight-school membership, the WAC seemed to stabilize. But Hurd admitted there are still some issues the league needs to resolve in the long term.

“I like the commitment of our board of directors, I like the commitment of our member institutions that we have right now,” Hurd told the Sun-News during the WAC Tournament. “And I think we have made progress in two years. But, we have more progress to make. I’m happy with the strides we’ve made from one year to the second year.”

One of the issues the conference is facing is Chicago State’s budget issues. The school will reportedly run out of money at the end of April due to a budget impasse in the State of Illinois, which has been operating without a budget since last July. And because of that, the state has not been able to provide any funding to universities in Illinois. According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago State receives a third of its revenue from the state.

Chicago State’s athletic department has announced it is committed through the end of the 2015-16 season and that they will continue recruiting for next season. The school also announced registration for the summer and fall semesters will open this week.

Hurd said Chicago State’s budget issue is something the conference is monitoring, but is out of their control.

“We are certainly monitoring it and we are having a lot of communication with Chicago State,” Hurd said. “But, the bottom line is there’s no control, either from our standpoint or Chicago State’s standpoint. We certainly hope it gets resolved. We think it will get resolved. But, until it is resolved, it is an issue that could cause a little bit of a concern.”

If Chicago State closed, the WAC would be down to seven members and would be at the minimum to retain its automatic qualifying status for NCAA Tournaments. The WAC currently only has six members for softball and has an automatic bid, but would not be affected as Chicago State does not sponsor softball.

“We obviously don’t want to be at seven,” Hurd said. “There’s a number of issues with that. But, in a worst case scenario, we would be OK from an AQ standpoint. But, it also heightens the fact that we need to get beyond eight in terms of members.”

Hurd said the WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments will return to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., in 2017 and that the WAC is currently going year-by-year.

“The one advantage that we have in Las Vegas, and it’s an obvious one, is it’s a neutral court,” Hurd said. “And I think as long as you are a one-bid league, which we have been for the last few years, that’s vital to the teams that are playing. When we can get to the point where we are a multi bid league, then I think we have some other options we can look at also.”

Attendance for the men’s championship game between New Mexico State and Cal State Bakersfield this year was 1,673, slightly down from 1,700 for last season’s men’s final between NMSU and Seattle.

“I’m well aware it’s going to take some time,” Hurd said about attendance at the WAC Tournament. “I think when Grand Canyon University becomes eligible for this tournament and the NCAA Tournament that will make a big difference. They are building to draw fans. But, the reality is if we are going to be here longer term than one year at a time, our members have to prove they can support the tournament. Otherwise we will have to look for some other options.”

For men’s basketball, the league saw some slight improvement from the 2014-15 season. The WAC’s RPI was 26 this season, up from 31 out of the 32 Division I conferences last season, with Grand Canyon (RPI 92), NMSU (RPI 111) and Bakersfield (RPI 117) hovering around the RPI Top 100. However, the bottom of the league was ranked in the bottom half of the nation with Missouri-Kansas City (286), Seattle (287), Texas-Rio Grande Valley (337) and Chicago State (348).

Hurd also mentioned the league has improved as a whole in other sports as well, such as men’s soccer where Seattle got a national seed and beat UCLA in the NCAA Tournament while Utah Valley also got an at-large bid for the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament.

“That’s progress,” Hurd said. “Basketball, same way. We have three very good teams around the 100 RPI. But, quite frankly we need to get better than around the 100 RPI. I like the strides that we have made. But, we need to get better in the lower half. That’s really the bottom line for improving RPI in the league and helping our teams not lose ground as they get into conference play. I’m happy where we are in the top half, but not as happy where we are in the bottom half.”